Halo: Combat Evolved: Difference between revisions

[[Image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c7/Masterchief-and-company.png/180px-Masterchief-and-company.png|thumb|left|From left, the Master Chief, [[Cortana]], and [[List of Halo characters#Jacob Keyes|Captain Keyes]] aboard the ''Pillar of Autumn''.]]

Keyes survives the ''Autumn''{{'}}s crash landing, but is captured by the Covenant.<ref>'''Cortana''': Warning: I've picked up reports that the Covenant has located and secured the Pillar of Autumn's crash site. Good news is the Captain's still alive. The bad news is that the Covenant have captured all of the surviving men. Let's hurry and find the final lifeboat so we can link up with the rest of the survivors.</ref> In the second and third levels of the game, the Master Chief and Cortana gather human survivors and rescue Captain Keyes, who is imprisoned on the Covenant ship ''Truth and Reconciliation''. Once rescued, Keyes orders the Master Chief to beat the Covenant to Halo's control center and to discover its purpose.<ref>'''Cortana''': According to the data in their networks, the ring has some kind of deep religious significance. If I'm analyzing this correctly, they believe that Halo is some kind of weapon—one with vast, unimaginable power. / '''Keyes''': And it's true. The Covenant kept saying that whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe. / '''Cortana''': Now I see! I have intercepted a number of messages about a Covenant search team scouting for a control room. I thought they were looking for the bridge of a cruiser that I damaged during the battle above the ring, but they must be looking for Halo's control room! / '''Keyes''': That's bad news. If Halo is a weapon, and the Covenant gain control of it, they'll use it against us and wipe out the entire human race. Chief, Cortana, I have a new mission for you. We need to beat the Covenant to Halo's control room. Marines, let's move.</ref> The Master Chief and Cortana travel to a map room called the Silent Cartographer, which leads them to the control room.<ref>'''Cortana''': The Covenant believe that what they call the "Silent Cartographer" is somewhere under this island. The Cartographer is a map room that will lead us to Halo's control center.</ref> There, Cortana enters the systems and, discovering something urgent, suddenly sends the Master Chief to find Captain Keyes, while she stays behind.<ref>'''Master Chief''': So, what sort of weapon is it? / '''Cortana''': What are you talking about? '''Master Chief''': Let's stay focused. Halo: how do we use it against the Covenant? / '''Cortana''': This ring isn't a cudgel, you barbarian. It's something else. Something much more important. The Covenant were right. This ring, it's Forerunner. Give me a second to access... yes, the Forerunners built this place, what they called a fortress world, in order to-- Wait... No, that can't be! Oh, those Covenant fools! They must have known! There must have been signs! / '''Master Chief''': Slow down. You're losing me. / '''Cortana''': The Covenant... found something buried in this ring; something horrible. And now they're afraid. '''Master Chief''': Something buried? Where? / '''Cortana''': The Captain! We've got to stop the Captain! / '''Master Chief''': Keyes? What do we... / '''Cortana''': The weapons cache he's looking for is not really... We can't let him get inside! / '''Master Chief''': I don't understa-- / '''Cortana''': There's no time! Get out of here! Find Keyes. Stop him. Before it's too late!</ref> While searching for his commander, the Master Chief learns that the Covenant have accidentally released [[Flood (Halo)|the Flood]], a parasitic alien race capable of spreading itself by overwhelming and infesting other sentient lifeforms. Keyes falls victim to them while looking for a cache of weapons. The release of the Flood prompts [[343 Guilty Spark]] to recruit the Master Chief in retrieving [[Halo (megastructure)|the Index]], a device that will activate Halo and prevent the Flood from spreading beyond the facility.

While fighting the Flood, the Covenant, and Guilty Spark's Sentinels, the Master Chief and Cortana attempt to destroy Halo before 343 Guilty Spark activates it. Cortana discovers that the best way to destroy Halo is to cause the crashed ''Pillar of Autumn'' to self-destruct.<ref>'''Cortana''': We can't let the monitor activate Halo! We have to stop him—we have to destroy Halo. According to my analysis of the available data, I believe the best course of action is somewhat risky. An explosion of sufficient size will help destabilize the ring and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a large scale, however. A starship's fusion reactors going critical would do the job. I'm going to search what's left of the Covenant battle net' and see if I can locate the ''Pillar of Autumn''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s crash site. If the ship's fusion reactors are still relatively intact, we can use them to destroy Halo.</ref> However, Captain Keyes' authorization is required to destroy the ship.<ref>'''Cortana''': I've located the ''Pillar of Autumn''. She put down twelve hundred kilometers upspin. Energy readings show her fusion reactors are still powered up. The systems on the Pillar of Autumn have failsafes even I can't override without authorization from the Captain. We'll need to find him, or his neural implants, to start the fusion core detonation.</ref> By the time that they reach Keyes, he has been infected and turned into a [[Flood (Halo)#Brain forms|Brain Flood]]. The Master Chief retrieves Keyes' neural implants directly from his brain, and Cortana activates the ''Autumn''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s self-destruct sequence. However, 343 Guilty Spark reappears and deactivates the countdown, discovering the record of human history in the process.<ref>'''Cortana''': This won't take long ... There. That should give us enough time to make it to a lifeboat and put some distance between ourselves and Halo before the detonation. / '''343 Guilty Spark''': I'm afraid that's out of the question, really. / '''Cortana''': Oh, hell! / '''343 Guilty Spark''': Ridiculous—that you and a warship's AI with such a wealth of knowledge ... Weren't you worried it might be captured, or destroyed? / '''Cortana''': He's in my data arrays—a local tap. / '''343 Guilty Spark''': You can't imagine how exciting this is to have a record of all our lost time. Human history is it? Fascinating. / '''343 Guilty Spark''': Oh, how will I enjoy every moment of its categorization. To think that you would destroy this installation, as well as this record. I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words. / '''Cortana''': He stopped the self-destruct sequence!</ref> The Master Chief manually causes the ''Pillar of Autumn''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s fusion reactors to begin to melt down, giving him and Cortana only 15 minutes to escape.<ref>'''Cortana''': That did it. The engine's gone critical. Based on the current rate of decay, you should have fifteen minutes to get off the ship. We don't have much time. We should move outside and signal for evac. Accessing schematics ... there's a service lift at the top of the engine room. It leads to a Class 7 service corridor that runs along the ship's dorsal structure. Hurry!</ref> The Master Chief and Cortana flee in a UNSC Longsword fighter just in time to escape the ''Autumn''{{'}}s explosion, which in turn destroys Halo. The ending reveals that 343 Guilty Spark survives the destruction of Halo. The story is continued in ''[[Halo 2]]''.